The Vet from Snowy River by Stella Quinn

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Hanrahan, where this book is set, is of course a made-up town. The cakes I’ve baked over the years haven’t been works of art like Vera’s, and the quilts I’ve cobbled together have had more than their share of wonky stitches. I think Marigold would approve.

What is not made up, however, is my love of small towns and rural settings and characters who take the time to really introduce themselves on the pages. The small town I grew up in didn’t have brumbies in the high country or gum trees tangling their limbs over snowmelt creeks. It had coconuts, not snow. It had kids messing about in canoes, and mango trees lining the main street, and a grocery store where you could only buy a potato if the ship had been in.

It was the kind of place where returning after a long absence felt like coming home and that was the feeling I wanted Josh to have after his long absence away from Hanrahan.

His love for old buildings and his interest in their preservation mirrors my own. I went to boarding school in a regional country town in Queensland where the streets are home to stone and brick buildings that have survived a century and a half with varying degrees of success. Sadly my in-person visit to reacquaint myself with the historic buildings in the Cooma district was “covidated” so I had to content myself with the websites devoted to sharing the long and diverse history of the Snowy Mountains region. I particularly enjoyed reading about the restorations done by the volunteers of the Kosciuszko Huts Association.

Also … I may have watched the movie, The Man from Snowy River, about a thousand times as I wrote this book. That music! Those wild skies! Clancy! My book also owes a nod to the bush poetry of Banjo Paterson and John O’Brien. The humour and affection they could portray as they described their country characters’ antics is a skill I very much admire and hope (think the guinea pig scene!) I was able to match. I have a swag of bush poetry of my own hiding in a folder on a shelf and can confirm that my rhyming skill is right up there with my wonky stitches.

What is not wonky, however, is the support I have received as I have deviated from my life’s path (mother, accountant, dog lover, reader) to embrace the wonderful world of fiction writing. Thank you to my writing group, Jayne Kingsley, Megan Mayfair, Marianne Bayliss and Anna Foxkirk, who have cheered me on through many a manuscript.

Thank you also to the Australian Society of Authors and HQ Fiction. Their generous sponsorship of the 2020 ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize, in which an early manuscript of The Vet from Snowy River was shortlisted, resulted in my story receiving a publishing contract from Harlequin MIRA. My journey with Harlequin’s editorial and cover teams has been a dream come true, and that phone call from Rachael Donovan at HarperCollins to tell me my book had attracted their interest ranks as one of my Very Best Days Ever.

Thank you to the back gate girls; you know who you are.

Thank you to my family.

Thank you to Romance Writers of Australia whose competitions, community, and conferences gave me the confidence to pursue a career as an author.

And, finally, thank you to the readers who have chosen this book from all the wonderful books out there. I hope you enjoy The Vet from Snowy River. If you do, please tell your friends.

Happy Reading!